Site Search Navigation

Search NYTimes.com

Loading...

See next articles

See previous articles

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Supported by

Maturity Matters

October 26, 2010 12:58 amOctober 26, 2010 12:58 am

A new memo from Goldman Sachs (no link) looks at quantitative easing by treating it as equivalent to a shortening of the maturity of federal debt; among other things, the memo answers the question of where I got it from: work by Jim Hamilton and Cynthia Wu.

So, what GS estimates is that a trillion dollars of QE amounts to a one-year reduction in the average maturity of federal debt. How many people think that would be enough to have a transformative effect on the economy?